Conferencing that bridges virtual world and real-world meeting places

ABSTRACT

Mechanisms are provided for conference call communication in a virtual world environment. The mechanisms establish a hybrid conference call by establishing a hybrid conference call communication connection between a data based communication conference call server, that handles data based communications with client computing devices, and a telephone conference call server, that handles telephone protocol communications with telephone devices external to the virtual world environment. Communications between client computing devices and telephone devices are converted from data based communications to telephone protocol communications and vice versa using a data based communication conference call server and a telephone conference call server.

BACKGROUND

The present application relates generally to an improved data processingapparatus and method and more specifically to mechanisms for providingconferencing capabilities that bridge virtual world and real worldmeeting places.

There has been a surge in the popularity of three-dimensional (3D)virtual world environments, especially in the area of massivelymultiplayer online (MMO) games. A virtual world environment is a worldthat exists entirely within the digital virtual space of one or morecomputing devices and which includes virtual objects, characters,scenery, and other virtual world elements that may be rendered bygraphics engines on the computing devices such that a user in the realworld may manipulate at least some of the virtual elements of thevirtual world through user interface devices. A MMO game is an onlinecomputer or console game in which a large number of players interactwith one another in a virtual world. In many of these MMO games, playersassume the role of a character and take control over most of thatcharacter's actions. The virtual world in which these characters arerepresented as avatars may take many different forms including a fantasysetting, a science fiction universe, or the old west, for example. Withthe rising acceptance of personal computers, as well as increasedgraphical capabilities of personal computers and video game consoles,MMO games have become wildly popular around the world. In fact, part ofthe draw of MMO games is that players from any continent may be onlineat any given time and may interact with players from other continents orother countries.

Other vehicles for social interaction on the Internet have also becomepopular, such as chat rooms, message boards, instant messaging clients,Web logs (blogs), photo blogs, and the like. The idea of virtual worldenvironments has expanded beyond MMO games. Popular virtual worldenvironments today provide a manner in which users can interact in a“virtual world” that is not necessarily very different from the “realworld.” Users may create an avatar that represents them in the virtualworld and which may be used to interact with objects, other avatars, andother virtual world elements at the behest of the user. Users may thencreate an apartment, buy clothing, decorate their apartments, meet withother users, trade items, create items, etc., all within the virtualworld.

Virtual world environments and MMO game environments are morphing intocorporate collaboration tools, i.e. virtual conferencing. Users of thesetechnologies find these virtual conferencing mechanisms within virtualworld environments extremely engaging which allows for more focusedmeetings online. With such virtual conferencing, the users have a morepositive experience than traditional telephone conferencing because theyare able to view representations of the other participants, i.e. avatarsof the other participants, and use their own avatars to interact withthe avatars of the other participants while conducting the virtualconference.

One of the main issues with virtual world and MMO game technology is theneed to be present at the meeting in a virtual world in order toparticipate. That is, in order for users to participate in a virtualconference in a virtual world, the users' avatars typically must bepresent at a same location within the virtual world and must enablecommunication between the avatars. This requires that all participantsin the virtual conference have access to the virtual world environment,have a virtual world environment representation of themselves, i.e. anavatar, the users must be physically present at their client computerswith appropriate hardware available, e.g., speakers, headset,microphone, etc., and must be running the client application for thevirtual world environment. Thus, the users that can participate in avirtual world conference are limited by such requirements.

SUMMARY

In one illustrative embodiment, a method, in a data processing system,is provided for conference call communication in a virtual worldenvironment. The method comprises establishing a hybrid conference callby establishing a hybrid conference call communication connectionbetween a data based communication conference call server, that handlesdata based communications with client computing devices, and a telephoneconference call server, that handles telephone protocol communicationswith telephone devices external to the virtual world environment. Themethod further comprises receiving, in the data based communicationconference call server, a first data based communication associated withthe hybrid conference call from a client computing device. Moreover, themethod comprises converting the first data based communication to afirst telephone protocol communication to generate a converted telephoneprotocol communication and forwarding the converted telephone protocolcommunication to one or more telephone devices via the telephoneconference call server. In addition, the method comprises receiving, inthe telephone conference call server, a second telephone protocolcommunication associated with the hybrid conference call from atelephone device. The method also comprises converting a secondtelephone protocol communication to a second data based communication togenerate a converted data based communication. The method furthermorecomprises forwarding the converted data based communication to one ormore client computing devices via the data based communicationconference call server.

In other illustrative embodiments, a computer program product comprisinga computer useable or readable medium having a computer readable programis provided. The computer readable program, when executed on a computingdevice, causes the computing device to perform various ones, andcombinations of, the operations outlined above with regard to the methodillustrative embodiment. In yet another illustrative embodiment, asystem/apparatus is provided. The system/apparatus may comprise a databased communication conference call server and a telephone conferencecall server coupled to the data based communication conference callserver which, together, may perform various ones, and combinations of,the operations outlined above with regard to the method illustrativeembodiment.

These and other features and advantages of the present invention will bedescribed in, or will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in theart in view of, the following detailed description of the exampleembodiments of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention, as well as a preferred mode of use and further objectivesand advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to thefollowing detailed description of illustrative embodiments when read inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is an example block diagram of a distributed data processingsystem in which aspects of the illustrative embodiments may beimplemented;

FIG. 2 is an example block diagram of a computing device in whichaspects of the illustrative embodiments may be implemented;

FIG. 3 is an example diagram illustrating one way in which a VOIPconference connection may be established between client computingdevices;

FIG. 4 is an example block diagram of a system having mechanisms toimplement a VOIP to traditional conference call bridging functionalityin accordance with one illustrative embodiment; and

FIG. 5 is a flowchart outlining an example operation for establishing ahybrid conference call in accordance with one illustrative embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The illustrative embodiments provide a mechanism for providingconferencing capabilities that bridge virtual world and real worldmeeting places. With the mechanisms of the illustrative embodiments,parcels of virtual land, i.e. locations within the virtual worldenvironment, such as a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game virtualworld environment, or sub-portions of the virtual world environment, areparceled off to serve as a virtual meeting place where voice and/ormultimedia communication is permitted between participants in thevirtual world environment. That is, users having avatars in the virtualworld may communicate with each other by moving their avatars to theparceled off sub-portion of the virtual world environment andcommunicate with each other via voice of IP (VOIP), multimediacommunications using one or more of voice, video, graphical, or othertype of communication.

In addition, with the mechanisms of the illustrative embodiments, theparcel of land, or sub-portion of the virtual world environment,hereafter referred to as the “media parcel,” that is associated with themeeting place is further assigned a conference call phone number andpasscode used with conventional telephone communication, or a dialoutfeature specific for the media parcel. When a user's virtual worldparticipant, i.e. an avatar, enters the media parcel in addition to, orinstead of, the normal operation of moving to a separate VOIP channel inthe virtual environment, the conference call and passcode are used bythe VOIP server to bridge to an existing enterprise wide conferencecalling system. This bridging operation is done seamlessly such thatvirtual world participants, or avatars, are not disrupted from theirnormal activities yet are notified that they have entered a conferencecall area. Users that are unable to sit at their computers and work in avirtual world environment, or do not have access to the virtual world,such as by having an account and avatar, may use standard orconventional conference call phone number and passcode methods to jointhe meeting. The presence of another conference call participant via aconventional conference call phone number may be signaled to the otherparticipants present in the virtual world environment by way of anaudible and/or visual cue provided to the client computing devices ofthe various participants, the generation of a “ghost avatar”representation of the conventional conference call phone participants,or the like.

When a user's avatar enters the media parcel, the user may be informedof the conference call telephone number which the user may then use toenter into a conventional conference call with other non-virtual worldenvironment participants. Alternatively, the conference call telephonenumber and passcode may be automatically used to bridge a VOIP channelassociated with the user's avatar with a conventional telephoneconference call system so that the user may communicate via VOIP throughthe virtual world environment but send and receive the communications toa traditional telephone system based conference call system.

In addition to the above, an automatic notification mechanism may beprovided that operates in response to the establishment of the mediaparcel. During the establishment of the media parcel, a user may specifyan authorized participant list and the corresponding contact informationfor the authorized participants where necessary. For example, thisauthorized participant list may specify avatar identifiers, e.g.,character names or the like, for users who have avatars in the virtualworld environment, and names, communication identifiers, and/ortelephone numbers of users that are authorized to be participants but donot have avatars in the virtual world environment. Furthermore, contactinformation, such as email addresses, instant messaging addresses, orthe like, may be included in the authorized participant list. For usershaving avatars, the avatar names may be correlated by the automaticnotification mechanism with contact information for the correspondingusers. This contact information may include virtual mail in the virtualworld environment, for example. This information may be used by theautomatic notification mechanism to automatically send notifications tousers via their contact information, e.g., virtual mail, email messages,instant messages, automated telephone calls, or the like, so as toinform the users of the established virtual meeting place includingspecifying a location of the media parcel so that avatars may be movedto the media parcel or transported there, conference call-in numbers andpasswords, and the like. These and other features of the illustrativeembodiments will be described in more detail hereafter.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the present inventionmay be embodied as a system, method, or computer program product.Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of anentirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (includingfirmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodimentcombining software and hardware aspects that may all generally bereferred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore,aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer programproduct embodied in any one or more computer readable medium(s) havingcomputer usable program code embodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readablemedium would include the following: an electrical connection having oneor more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a randomaccess memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmableread-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CDROM), an optical storage device, amagnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.In the context of this document, a computer readable storage medium maybe any tangible medium that can contain or store a program for use by orin connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, ordevice.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, in abaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Computer code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wireline, optical fiber cable, radio frequency (RF), etc., or anysuitable combination thereof.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent invention may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java™, Smalltalk™, C++, or the like, and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similarprogramming languages. The program code may execute entirely on theuser's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer, or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latterscenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computerthrough any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to the illustrativeembodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block ofthe flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations ofblocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can beimplemented by computer program instructions. These computer programinstructions may be provided to a processor of a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions,which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmabledata processing apparatus, create means for implementing thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions thatimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, otherprogrammable apparatus, or other devices to produce a computerimplemented process such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide processes forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof code, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be notedthat, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in theblock may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, twoblocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantiallyconcurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverseorder, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be notedthat each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, andcombinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchartillustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-basedsystems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations ofspecial purpose hardware and computer instructions.

The illustrative embodiments are preferably utilized in a distributeddata processing environment in which client computing devices provideusers access to one or more server computing devices that facilitate therepresentation of a virtual world environment in which the user'savatars may interact with other avatars and objects within the virtualworld environment. The client computing devices access the one or moreserver computing devices via one or more data communication networks. Inorder to provide a context for the description of the specific elementsand functionality of the illustrative embodiments, FIGS. 1 and 2 areprovided hereafter as example environments in which aspects of theillustrative embodiments may be implemented.

With reference now to the figures and in particular with reference toFIGS. 1-2, example diagrams of data processing environments are providedin which illustrative embodiments of the present invention may beimplemented. It should be appreciated that FIGS. 1-2 are only examplesand are not intended to assert or imply any limitation with regard tothe environments in which aspects or embodiments of the presentinvention may be implemented. Many modifications to the depictedenvironments may be made without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe present invention.

With reference now to the figures, FIG. 1 depicts a pictorialrepresentation of an example distributed data processing system in whichaspects of the illustrative embodiments may be implemented. Distributeddata processing system 100 may include a network of computers in whichaspects of the illustrative embodiments may be implemented. Thedistributed data processing system 100 contains at least one network102, which is the medium used to provide communication links betweenvarious devices and computers connected together within distributed dataprocessing system 100. The network 102 may include connections, such aswire, wireless communication links, or fiber optic cables.

In the depicted example, server 104 and server 106 are connected tonetwork 102 along with storage unit 108. In addition, clients 110, 112,and 114 are also connected to network 102. These clients 110, 112, and114 may be, for example, personal computers, network computers, or thelike. In the depicted example, server 104 provides data, such as bootfiles, operating system images, and applications to the clients 110,112, and 114. Clients 110, 112, and 114 are clients to server 104 in thedepicted example. Distributed data processing system 100 may includeadditional servers, clients, and other devices not shown.

In the depicted example, distributed data processing system 100 is theInternet with network 102 representing a worldwide collection ofnetworks and gateways that use the Transmission ControlProtocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite of protocols to communicatewith one another. At the heart of the Internet is a backbone ofhigh-speed data communication lines between major nodes or hostcomputers, consisting of thousands of commercial, governmental,educational and other computer systems that route data and messages. Ofcourse, the distributed data processing system 100 may also beimplemented to include a number of different types of networks, such asfor example, an intranet, a local area network (LAN), a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the like. As stated above, FIG. 1 is intended as anexample, not as an architectural limitation for different embodiments ofthe present invention, and therefore, the particular elements shown inFIG. 1 should not be considered limiting with regard to the environmentsin which the illustrative embodiments of the present invention may beimplemented.

With reference now to FIG. 2, a block diagram of an example dataprocessing system is shown in which aspects of the illustrativeembodiments may be implemented. Data processing system 200 is an exampleof a computer, such as client 110 in FIG. 1, in which computer usablecode or instructions implementing the processes for illustrativeembodiments of the present invention may be located.

In the depicted example, data processing system 200 employs a hubarchitecture including north bridge and memory controller hub (NB/MCH)202 and south bridge and input/output (I/O) controller hub (SB/ICH) 204.Processing unit 206, main memory 208, and graphics processor 210 areconnected to NB/MCH 202. Graphics processor 210 may be connected toNB/MCH 202 through an accelerated graphics port (AGP).

In the depicted example, local area network (LAN) adapter 212 connectsto SB/ICH 204. Audio adapter 216, keyboard and mouse adapter 220, modem222, read only memory (ROM) 224, hard disk drive (HDD) 226, CD-ROM drive230, universal serial bus (USB) ports and other communication ports 232,and PCI/PCIe devices 234 connect to SB/ICH 204 through bus 238 and bus240. PCI/PCIe devices may include, for example, Ethernet adapters,add-in cards, and PC cards for notebook computers. PCI uses a card buscontroller, while PCIe does not. ROM 224 may be, for example, a flashbasic input/output system (BIOS).

HDD 226 and CD-ROM drive 230 connect to SB/ICH 204 through bus 240. HDD226 and CD-ROM drive 230 may use, for example, an integrated driveelectronics (IDE) or serial advanced technology attachment (SATA)interface. Super I/O (SIO) device 236 may be connected to SB/ICH 204.

An operating system runs on processing unit 206. The operating systemcoordinates and provides control of various components within the dataprocessing system 200 in FIG. 2. As a client, the operating system maybe a commercially available operating system such as Microsoft® Windows®XP (Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in theUnited States, other countries, or both). An object-oriented programmingsystem, such as the Java™ programming system, may run in conjunctionwith the operating system and provides calls to the operating systemfrom Java™ programs or applications executing on data processing system200 (Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States,other countries, or both).

As a server, data processing system 200 may be, for example, an IBM®eServer™ System p® computer system, running the Advanced InteractiveExecutive (AIX®) operating system or the LINUX® operating system(eServer, System p, and AIX are trademarks of International BusinessMachines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or bothwhile LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, othercountries, or both). Data processing system 200 may be a symmetricmultiprocessor (SMP) system including a plurality of processors inprocessing unit 206. Alternatively, a single processor system may beemployed.

Instructions for the operating system, the object-oriented programmingsystem, and applications or programs are located on storage devices,such as HDD 226, and may be loaded into main memory 208 for execution byprocessing unit 206. The processes for illustrative embodiments of thepresent invention may be performed by processing unit 206 using computerusable program code, which may be located in a memory such as, forexample, main memory 208, ROM 224, or in one or more peripheral devices226 and 230, for example.

A bus system, such as bus 238 or bus 240 as shown in FIG. 2, may becomprised of one or more buses. Of course, the bus system may beimplemented using any type of communication fabric or architecture thatprovides for a transfer of data between different components or devicesattached to the fabric or architecture. A communication unit, such asmodem 222 or network adapter 212 of FIG. 2, may include one or moredevices used to transmit and receive data. A memory may be, for example,main memory 208, ROM 224, or a cache such as found in NB/MCH 202 in FIG.2.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware inFIGS. 1-2 may vary depending on the implementation. Other internalhardware or peripheral devices, such as flash memory, equivalentnon-volatile memory, or optical disk drives and the like, may be used inaddition to or in place of the hardware depicted in FIGS. 1-2. Also, theprocesses of the illustrative embodiments may be applied to amultiprocessor data processing system, other than the SMP systemmentioned previously, without departing from the spirit and scope of thepresent invention.

Moreover, the data processing system 200 may take the form of any of anumber of different data processing systems including client computingdevices, server computing devices, a tablet computer, laptop computer,telephone or other communication device, a personal digital assistant(PDA), or the like. In some illustrative examples, data processingsystem 200 may be a portable computing device which is configured withflash memory to provide non-volatile memory for storing operating systemfiles and/or user-generated data, for example. Essentially, dataprocessing system 200 may be any known or later developed dataprocessing system without architectural limitation.

In accordance with the illustrative embodiments, one or more servers,such as servers 104 and/or 106, provide software and hardware facilitiesfor providing a virtual world environment. Client devices, such asclients 110, 112, and/or 114 run client software designed to work inconjunction with the server based software/hardware facilities andcommunicate with the servers 104 and/or 106 to generate a representationof the virtual world environment on the client computing devices 110,112, and/or 114. That is, the client computing devices 110, 112, and/or114 communicate data to, and receive data from, the servers 104 and/or106 with regard to user inputs to the client computing devices 110, 112,and/or 114 and receive responses back from the servers 104 and/or 106indicating how the user's input modifies the representation of thevirtual world environment and objects within the virtual worldenvironment. The interaction between client devices and server computingdevices to generate representations of virtual world environments and toallow a user to interact with the virtual world environments isgenerally known in the art and thus, a more detailed explanation is notprovided herein.

In some known virtual world environment systems, it is possible for auser to establish a parcel of virtual land, i.e. a portion of thevirtual world environment, that is associated with a voice of InternetProtocol (VOIP) conference. That is, a user may designate a particularvirtual location within the virtual world environment as a meeting placefor users to communicate with each other. Users moving their virtualworld representations of themselves, i.e. their avatars, into thedesignated virtual location or portion of the virtual world environmentmay then communicate with each other via a VOIP communicationconnection. Only the users whose avatars are within the designatedvirtual location may communicate with each other over the VOIPconnection, thereby providing a semi-private VOIP conference callcapability. Of course, depending upon the particular virtual worldenvironment system, the user may be given various options for settingpreferences for the VOIP conference call, including a white list of useridentifiers or character names for avatars that are permitted to join inthe VOIP conference so as to keep unwanted users from accessing the VOIPconference connection.

FIG. 3 is an example diagram illustrating one way in which a VOIPconference connection may be established between client computingdevices. As shown in FIG. 3, client computing devices 310 and 320 runvirtual world client software 315 and 325 to generate visual and audiblerepresentations of the virtual world environment on the client computingdevices 310 and 320. The software 315 and 325 communicate with virtualworld generation and management software 335 running on a virtual worldserver 330 using virtual world protocol to perform the communication.The virtual world protocol specifies the type and format of the data tobe communicated to and from the server 330 so that the client software315 and 325 and the server software 335 know what each other are tryingto communicate.

In addition to the virtual world client software 315 and 325, the clientcomputing devices 310 and 320 may also run a VOIP plug-in softwaremodule 317 and 327 to allow VOIP communication with other users via thevirtual world environment. This VOIP plug-in software module 317 and 327may communicate with the same server 330, or may communicate with aseparate server 340 (as shown), that provides a VOIP conference callcapability. That is, the server 340, which is a VOIP virtual worldserver 340, runs a VOIP conference call bridging software 345 capable ofcommunicating with the VOIP plug-in software modules 317 and 327 on theclient computing devices 310 and 320 and directing VOIP communicationsto other client computing devices 310 and 320 that are involved in theVOW conference call. These VOIP communications may make use of variousprotocols, one example of which is the Session Initiation Protocol(SIP).

With this configuration, a user of client device 310 may set up aportion of the virtual world environment for use as a meeting place forVOIP conference call communication with other users of the virtual worldenvironment. For example, a user may want to establish a parcel of land,a virtual location in a virtual world environment, or the like, so thatthe user may communicate with other users of the virtual worldenvironment, such as for a business meeting, guild meeting in a virtualgaming world environment, or the like. The user of client device 310 maythen go through the necessary steps to communicate with the VOIP virtualworld server 340 to set up the designated virtual location within thevirtual world environment. The VOIP virtual world server 340 may thenassociate an identifier of the virtual location within the virtual worldenvironment with a VOIP conference call communication. As a result, if auser moves his/her avatar into the designated virtual location, the usermay initiate a VOIP conference call communication by selecting an optionto join the VOIP conference call. As a result of such a selection, theVOIP virtual world server 340 receives a SIP message to initiate a VOIPcall in the VOIP conference call.

Once a virtual location, virtual parcel of land, or portion of thevirtual world environment is already designated as being associated witha VOIP conference, a user of a client device 310 may move their avatarinto the designated virtual location of the virtual world environmentthat is set aside for VOIP conference call communication. Such a virtuallocation may be specified in the virtual world environment by creating ameeting room that a user may select from a list of available meetingrooms, identifying the parcel of virtual land by way of a designatedtexture or graphical representation, or any other suitable way ofspecifying a virtual location as being set aside for VOIP conferencecall communication. Once in the designated virtual location, the usermay initiate a VOIP call with other participants in the VOIP conferencecall using SIP or another type of communication protocol.

Thus, with known systems, the ability to initiate a VOIP conference callwith other users having a virtual representation in the virtual worldenvironment is provided. However, as mentioned above, this mechanism islimited in that the individuals that may participate in the VOIPconference call must have virtual world environment representations ofthemselves and thus, must have accounts with the virtual world servers.Furthermore, the participants in the VOIP conference call must bepresent at the various client computing devices 310 and 320, in order tointeract with the virtual world environment so that they may positiontheir avatars within the designated virtual location and initiate theVOIP communication between the client computing device 310 and/or 320and the VOIP virtual world server 340. Furthermore, the users must havethe necessary hardware, e.g., headset, microphone, and the like,available at their client computing device 310 and/or 320, to facilitatethe VOIP communication.

However, there are times when a user of the virtual world environmentmay wish to have a conference call with participants having accounts andrepresentations within the virtual world environment as well asparticipants that do not. Moreover, there are times when a user may notbe able to be present at their client computing device but may wish toparticipate in a virtual world environment based conference call, suchas when the user is traveling, currently in a moving vehicle, or isotherwise unable to access the virtual world environment via a clientcomputing device. There are many other instances in which a user may notbe able to get involved in a VOIP conference call through knownmechanisms via the virtual world environment and, with known systems,would thus, not be able to participate in the conference call with otherusers.

The mechanisms of the illustrative embodiments provide software andhardware facilities to address such situations by providingfunctionality for bridging VOIP conference call mechanisms of virtualworld environments with traditional telephone based conference callsystems. A user may associate a virtual location in the virtual worldenvironment both with a VOIP conference call and with a traditionaltelephone conference call number and passcode. As a result, users thatare able to access the virtual world environment from their clientcomputing devices may do so via the associated VOIP plug-in modules andinterfacing with the VOIP virtual world servers in the manner previouslydescribed. Those users that are not able to, or choose not to, accessthe virtual world environment via a client computing device and VOIPplug-in modules, may communicate with other participants with theconference call via a traditional telephone based conference call numberand passcode. As a result, the number of possible participants inconference calls utilizing the virtual world environment is increasedand the flexibility for users to use either their client computingdevices or more traditional telephone based communications equipment isincreased.

FIG. 4 is an example block diagram of a system having mechanisms toimplement a VOIP to traditional conference call bridging functionalityin accordance with one illustrative embodiment. As shown in FIG. 4, thesystem includes a first portion corresponding to the known VOIP virtualworld server based system such as shown in FIG. 3 above. That is, thisfirst portion includes client computing devices 410 and 420 runningvirtual world client software 415 and 425 as well as VOIP plug-inmodules 417 and 427. The client computing devices 410 and 420communicate with a virtual world server 430 to generate a representationof the virtual world environment on the client computing devices usingthe virtual world client software 415 and 425 and the server software435. The client computing devices 410 and 420 communicate with the VOIPvirtual world server 440 when a VOIP conference call communication is tobe performed between users of the virtual world environment whosevirtual world environment representations, i.e. avatars, are currentlypresent in a VOIP conference call parceled portion of the virtual worldenvironment. The VOIP conference call bridging software 445 of theserver 440 may bridge VOIP communications between users whose avatarsare present in the VOIP parceled portion of the virtual worldenvironment.

In addition, the illustrative embodiments provide mechanisms forbridging traditional telephone system with the VOIP conference callbridging capability of the known systems. That is, in addition to theknown mechanisms for setting up a VOIP conference call within a virtualworld environment, the illustrative embodiments provide additionalsoftware capabilities within conference call server software, such asvia hybrid telephone conference bridging software module 447, toestablish a traditional telephone conference call bridging capability.That is, the VOIP virtual world server 440 runs an additional hybridtelephone conference bridging software module 447, which may be providedas a plug-in module to the VOIP conference call bridging software 445, aseparate application working in concert with the software 445, or thelike, for bridging between the VOIP conference call bridging software445 and the traditional conference call mechanisms of a traditionaltelephone based conference call server 450.

The traditional telephone based conference call server 450 runstraditional telephone conference call bridging software 455 for bridgingcommunications between traditional telephone handsets 460 and 470. Thetraditional telephone handsets 460 and 470 may be wired or wirelesstelephone devices that use a public switched telephone network (PSTN)480 and/or wireless telephone network 490 through which telephone callsare routed to/from one telephone device 460 from/to another telephonedevice 470. The traditional telephone handsets 460 and 470 typicallyonly provide voice communication over the PSTN 480 and/or wirelesstelephone network 490 and in general do not communicate via multimediatransmissions of data. However, the illustrative embodiments may also beused with smart phones and other more advanced telephone devices thatare capable of multimedia communication via a PSTN 480 and/or wirelesscommunication network 490. For example, the illustrative embodiments maybe used with multimedia communications, such as video-phonecommunications, to/from the telephone devices 460 and 470. Moreover, theillustrative embodiments may be used with VOIP communications from orbetween desktops, smart phone devices, or the like, for users that areusing soft-phone type applications but do not have avatars in thevirtual world.

Whether the telephone devices 460 and 470 are capable of multimediacommunications or not, it should be kept in mind that the users of thetelephone devices 460 and 470 are not able to access the virtual worldenvironment, or choose not to access the virtual world environment, froma client computing device running virtual world client software or VOIPplug-in modules. Thus, instead, the users of telephone devices 460 and470, if they want to be involved in a conference call with users thatare using the VOIP capabilities of the VOIP virtual world server 440,must utilize the bridging capabilities of the traditional telephonebased conference call server 450.

When a user of a client computing device 410, for example, wishes toestablish a parcel of virtual land in the virtual world environment orotherwise set aside a portion of the virtual world environment forestablishment of a conference call, the user may specify such a parcelor portion of the virtual world environment via the VOIP plug-insoftware 417 in a manner generally known in the art. However, inaddition, via the hybrid telephone conference bridging software module447 of the illustrative embodiments, the user of the client computingdevice 410 may further request that the conference call have anassociated traditional telephone conference call number and passcode sothat users that are not able to participate via VOIP within the virtualworld environment may still access the conference call through a moretraditional conference call mechanism via the traditional telephonebased conference call server 450. The user of the client computingdevice 410 may request such a hybrid communication through accessing thehybrid telephone conference bridging software module 447 such as via alogin process, sending a request to the hybrid telephone conferencebridging software module 447 from a client based agent (not shown) orplugin module (not shown), or the like.

The user may select an option, for example, via an interface with thehybrid telephone conference bridging software module 447, which may workin concert with the VOIP plug-in module 417 to provide options to theuser for establishing the conference call parcel in the virtual worldenvironment, to associate the parcel or portion of the virtual worldenvironment with not only a VOIP conference call but also a traditionaltelephone conference call to thereby establish a hybrid VOIP totraditional telephone conference call. For example, the hybrid telephoneconference bridging software module 447, in response to the user'sselection of an option to associate the parcel or portion of the virtualworld environment with a traditional telephone conference call, mayautomatically perform operations to setup a conference call call-intelephone number and passcode with the traditional telephone conferencecall bridging software 455.

The VOIP virtual world server 440 may associate the request to establishthe hybrid VOIP to traditional telephone conference call with anidentifier of the parcel or portion of the virtual world environment ina database 442 that stores entries for various conference call parcelsin the virtual world environment. The entries in the database may storeinformation identifying the parcel or portion of the virtual worldenvironment, VOIP information for establishing VOIP conference callingbetween VOIP client computing devices 410 and 420 including a date/timerange for the VOIP conference call, an optional listing of participantsin the VOIP conference call, such as by way of user identifiers or thelike, and other VOIP conference call information. In addition, thedatabase 442 may store additional information for bridgingcommunications to/from the traditional telephone based conference callserver 450, as described hereafter. For example, this additionalinformation may include a preconfigured or default conference callnumber generated and assigned to the parcel, a user specified conferencecall number and passcode, an authorization list that may be used tospecify which avatars and/or users are permitted access to the parcel,or the like. This information may be used by the VOIP virtual worldserver 440 to perform routing of communications between participants inthe hybrid conference call at the client computing devices 410 and 420,as well as the traditional telephone based conference call server 450.

The VOIP virtual world server 440 may forward a request to establish ahybrid conference call to the traditional telephone based conferencecall server 450, such as in response to the user's selection of anoption to associate the parcel or portion of the virtual worldenvironment with a traditional telephone conference call. Thetraditional telephone conference call bridging software 455 of thetraditional telephone based conference call server 450 may associate atraditional telephone call-in telephone number with a conference calland a passcode, as is generally known in the art. This information maybe preconfigured or dynamically configured by the avatars in the virtualworld for establishing a conference call between traditional telephonedevices 460 and 470 as well as the VOIP virtual world server 440. Inaddition, the traditional telephone conference call bridging software455 may store in one or more entries of the database 452, an identifierof the VOIP conference call with the traditional telephone conferencecall such that communications to/from the client computing devices 410and 420 via the VOIP virtual world server 440 may be properly routedto/from the traditional telephone devices 460 and 470 via thetraditional telephone based conference call server 450. The traditionaltelephone conference call call-in number and passcode may becommunicated back to the VOIP virtual world server 440 so that it may beused at the designated time range of the conference call to establish acommunication connection between the VOIP virtual world server 440 andthe traditional telephone conference call server 450.

The hybrid telephone conference bridging software module 447 mayinterface with client computing device based address book datastructures of a client computing device electronic mail application,instant messaging application, or the like. The user of the clientcomputing device, e.g., client computing device 410, when establishingthe hybrid conference call through the selection of options via theinterface with the hybrid telephone conference bridging software module447, may select participants for the hybrid telephone conference callfrom these address book data structures. As a result, the VOIP virtualworld server 440 may receive the identifiers for the participants andmay automatically send a message to these participants based on thecontact addresses in the address book data structures. For example, aninstant message, electronic mail message, or the like, may be sent tothe users indicating the date/time of the conference call, the identityof the parcel or portion of the virtual world environment where thehybrid conference call is to take place, and/or the call-in telephonenumber and passcode for the hybrid conference call in case the users arenot able to, or choose not to, access the hybrid conference call via thevirtual world environment.

The identification of the participants may be used as a way ofestablishing an authorized participant list that specifies theparticipants that may access the media parcel. For example, theauthorized participant list may specify avatar identifiers, e.g.,character names or the like, for users who have avatars in the virtualworld environment, and names, communication identifiers, and/ortelephone numbers of users that are authorized to be participants but donot have avatars in the virtual world environment. Furthermore, contactinformation, such as email addresses, instant messaging addresses, orthe like, may be included in the authorized participant list. For usershaving avatars, the avatar names may be correlated by the automaticnotification mechanism with contact information for the correspondingusers. This contact information may include virtual mail in the virtualworld environment, for example. This information may be used by theautomatic notification mechanism to automatically send the messages ornotifications to users via their contact information, e.g., virtualmail, email messages, instant messages, automated telephone calls, orthe like. The messages or notifications may be uniform for allparticipants or may be customized based on whether or not the users haveavatars in the virtual world environment or not. For example, users thatdo not have avatars may be given only the common information of time,date, identifiers of other authorized participants, and the telephonebased conference call information such as conference call call-in numberand passcode. Users that have avatars, may be given the commoninformation and only the virtual world environment information, i.e. anidentifier of the location of the media parcel, or may be given both thevirtual world environment information and the telephone conference callinformation in case the user is not able to access the virtual meetingplace via their computer using their avatar.

At the designated time for the hybrid conference call, users of clientcomputing devices 410 and 420 may move their virtual world environmentrepresentations, i.e. avatars, into the parcel or portion of the virtualworld environment to initiate a VOIP conference communication betweenthe users of client computing devices 410 and 420 via the VOIP virtualworld server 440 and the VOIP plug-in modules 417 and 427. In responseto at least one user's avatar initiating the hybrid conference call bymoving their avatar into the parcel or portion of the virtual worldenvironment, the VOIP virtual world server 440 may initiate theconference call connection with the traditional telephone conferencecall server 450 via the traditional telephone conference call bridgingsoftware 455. Alternatively, the establishment of the communicationconnection between the VOIP virtual world server 440 and the traditionaltelephone conference call server 450 may be performed based on theparticular date/time scheduled for the hybrid conference call. When acurrent time equals, or is within a particular threshold of, thescheduled start date/time for the hybrid conference call, the VOIPvirtual world server 440 may initiate the communication connection withthe traditional telephone conference call server 450.

Users of traditional telephone devices 460 and 470 may call into thetraditional telephone conference call server 450 using the hybridconference call call-in number and passcode. Communications from thetraditional telephone devices 460 and 470 are made via the PSTN 480and/or wireless network 490 using traditional telephone and/or wirelesstelephone communication protocols with the traditional telephoneconference call server 450. These communications are then converted todata communications by the traditional telephone conference callbridging software 455 and routed to the VOIP virtual world server 440using information stored in the database 452. This conversion mayinvolve, for example, converting traditional telephone protocolcommunications to a VOIP communication protocol. Alternatively, thisconversion may be performed by the VOIP conference call bridgingsoftware 445 at the VOIP virtual world server 440 rather than at thetraditional telephone conference call server 450. The VOIPcommunications may then be forwarded to users' client computing devices410 and 420 based on the information maintained in database 442.

Likewise, VOIP communications from the client computing devices 410 and420 may be routed to the VOIP virtual world server 440 which may thenconvert these communications to traditional telephone call signals usingthe VOIP conference call bridging software 445. Alternatively, thisconversion can be performed at the traditional telephone conference callserver 450 using the traditional telephone conference call bridgingsoftware 455. The communications may be routed to the traditionaltelephone conference call server 450 based on information stored incorresponding entries in the database 442. The traditional telephoneconference call server 450 may then route the converted communicationsignals to the traditional telephone devices 460 and 470 via thenetworks 480 and 490 using information stored in the database 452identifying the traditional telephone devices 460 and 470 that are partof the hybrid conference call.

The user of client computing devices 410 and 420 may be informed of thepresence of a hybrid conference call participant that is participatingvia a traditional telephone device by way of a visual and/or audiblenotification. For example, a textual, graphical, or other visual cue ormessage may be displayed to users via their client computing devices 410and 420 to indicate the presence of a traditional telephone device basedparticipant in the hybrid conference call. A representation of the usersparticipating via a traditional telephone device 460 or 470 may beprovided on the client computing devices 410 and 420 and may beaccentuated when communications are being output on the client computingdevice 410 and 420 from these other participants, e.g., therepresentation for the other participant may be highlighted, pulsated,or otherwise conspicuously identified when communications from thatparticipant are being output at the client computing device 410 and 420.In one illustrative embodiment, a ghost avatar may be generated anddisplayed as being present at the parcel or portion of the virtual worldenvironment corresponding to the hybrid conference call. This ghostavatar, however, would not be controlled by the user of the traditionaltelephone device 460 or 470 but instead may be controlled by the virtualworld server 430 as a non-player character avatar or the like usinggeneral scripts or the like to control any movement or interaction withobjects in the virtual world environment. Any type of notificationmechanism for informing the users having avatars within the virtualworld environment of the presence of users that are communicating viatraditional telephone devices may be used without departing from thespirit and scope of the illustrative embodiments.

Thus, using the mechanisms of the illustrative embodiments as describedabove with reference to FIG. 4, bridging between VOIP communicationcalls within a virtual world environment and traditional conferencecalling systems is facilitated. In this way, users that are not able, orchoose not to, access the virtual world environment via their clientcomputing devices, may still participate in a hybrid conference callusing their traditional telephone based communications equipment, e.g.,wired or wireless telephone devices. This increases the number of usersthat may participate in conference calls as well as provides flexibilityfor users to use various devices to participate in the hybrid conferencecalls.

It should be appreciated that while the above illustrative embodimentsare described with reference to “traditional” telephone devices, asmentioned above, these may involve smart telephone devices, videotelephone devices, and the like that also support multi-mediacommunications. These devices may be used to communicate using a hybridconference call mechanism of the illustrative embodiments as well as thetraditional voice-only telephone devices in a similar manner asdescribed above. In addition, if the communications involve multimediadata, this multimedia data may be output at the client computing devices410 and 420 using appropriate representations within the virtual worldenvironment. For example, if a user of a multimedia telephone device 460sends a video/stream as part of its communication, this video stream maybe output to the client computing devices 410 and 420, such as bygenerating a virtual screen within the parcel or portion of the virtualworld environment. The detection of such multimedia communications maybe performed by logic in the VOIP virtual world server 440 so that anappropriate output may be generated, for example.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart outlining an example operation for establishing ahybrid conference call in accordance with one illustrative embodiment.The operation starts by receiving, in a data based communicationconference call server, a request to establish a hybrid conference callfrom a client computing device (step 510). This request may be, forexample, an actual request transmitted from the client computing deviceto the server, a user's interaction with the server via an interface toprovide information and selections of options for establishing thehybrid communication, or the like. A data based communication conferencecall, e.g., VOIP conference call, is set up for designated date/time andidentifying a particular parcel or portion of a virtual worldenvironment associated with the data based conference call (step 520). Arequest is sent to a traditional telephone conference call serverrequesting that the traditional telephone conference call serverschedule a traditional telephone conference call at the same date/time(step 530). The traditional telephone conference call server schedulesthe traditional telephone conference call, assigns it a conferencecall-in number and passcode, and associates the traditional telephoneconference call with the data based communication conference callthrough appropriate identifiers (step 540).

The conference call call-in number and passcode are returned to the databased communication conference call server (step 550) which associatesthe conference call-in number and passcode with the data basedcommunication conference call (step 560). Thereafter, within a thresholdof the start date/time of the hybrid conference call, or in response toa user of a client computing device initiating the hybrid conferencecall by moving their avatar into parcel or portion of the virtual worldenvironment at a date/time corresponding to the hybrid conference call,the data based communication conference call server initiates acommunication connection with the traditional telephone conference callserver using the designated conference call-in number and passcode (step570). Thereafter, communications from client computing devices accessingthe hybrid conference call are routed to other client computing devicesin a same data format and are also converted from a data based format toa traditional telephone signal format and forwarded to traditionaltelephone devices participating in the hybrid conference call via thetraditional telephone conference call server (step 580). Furthermore,communications from traditional telephone devices accessing the hybridconference call are routed to other traditional telephone devices viathe traditional telephone conference call server in a same format butare also converted to a data based format and forwarded to clientcomputing devices via the data based communication conference callserver (step 590). A determination is made as to whether the hybridconference call is terminated (step 595). If not, the operation returnsto step 570. If so, the operation performs clean-up operations to teardown data structures associated with the hybrid conference call (step597), and the operation terminates.

As noted above, it should be appreciated that the illustrativeembodiments may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, anentirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardwareand software elements. In one example embodiment, the mechanisms of theillustrative embodiments are implemented in software or program code,which includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software,microcode, etc.

A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing programcode will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectlyto memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can includelocal memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulkstorage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at leastsome program code in order to reduce the number of times code must beretrieved from bulk storage during execution.

Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards,displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system eitherdirectly or through intervening I/O controllers. Network adapters mayalso be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system tobecome coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers orstorage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems,cable modems and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currentlyavailable types of network adapters.

The description of the present invention has been presented for purposesof illustration and description, and is not intended to be exhaustive orlimited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications andvariations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. Theembodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention, the practical application, and to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention forvarious embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, in a data processing system, forconference call communication in a virtual world environment,comprising: establishing a hybrid conference call by establishing ahybrid conference call communication connection between a data basedcommunication conference call server, that handles data basedcommunications with client computing devices, and a telephone conferencecall server, that handles telephone protocol communications withtelephone devices external to the virtual world environment; receiving,in the data based communication conference call server, a first databased communication associated with the hybrid conference call from aclient computing device; converting the first data based communicationto a first telephone protocol communication to generate a convertedtelephone protocol communication; forwarding the converted telephoneprotocol communication to one or more telephone devices via thetelephone conference call server; receiving, in the telephone conferencecall server, a second telephone protocol communication associated withthe hybrid conference call from a telephone device; converting thesecond telephone protocol communication to a second data basedcommunication to generate a converted data based communication; andforwarding the converted data based communication to one or more clientcomputing devices via the data based communication conference callserver, wherein establishing the hybrid conference call comprises:associating a virtual meeting place with a location within the virtualworld environment, wherein within the virtual meeting place a first setof users of virtual world environment avatars perform voicecommunication with each other using the data based communications; andassociating a conventional telephone number conference call call-innumber and passcode with the location within the virtual worldenvironment, wherein a second set of users that do not have avatars inthe virtual world environment communicate with the first set of users bydialing into the hybrid conference call using the call-in number andpasscode and performing voice communication using telephone protocolcommunications.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein a user in the firstset of users joins the hybrid conference call in response to the user inthe first set of users moving their virtual world environment avatarsinto the location associated with the virtual meeting place.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein, in response to a user in the second set ofusers joining the hybrid conference call by dialing the call-in numberand passcode, a notification is provided to other users in the first andsecond set of users.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the notificationincludes a visual notification being presented to the first set of usersvia client computing devices being used by the first set of users. 5.The method of claim 3, wherein, in response to the user in the secondset of users joining the hybrid conference call, an avatar for the userin the second set of users is automatically generated in the virtualmeeting place.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the avatar for the userin the second set of users is a ghost avatar that represents the user inthe virtual world environment but is not controllable by the user in thesecond set of users.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: inresponse to establishing the virtual meeting place, automaticallysending notifications to the first set of users and second set of userswith information identifying, for the first set of users, the locationin the virtual world environment associated with the virtual meetingplace, and identifying, for the second set of users, the conference callcall-in number and passcode associated with the location in the virtualworld environment.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data basedcommunication is a voice over internet protocol (VOIP) communication. 9.The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual world environment is amassively multiplayer online game virtual world environment.
 10. Asystem, comprising: a data based communication conference call server;and a telephone conference call server coupled to the data basedcommunication conference call server, wherein: a hybrid conference callis established by establishing a hybrid conference call communicationconnection between a data based communication conference call server,that handles data based communications with client computing devices,and a telephone conference call server, that handles telephone protocolcommunications with telephone devices external to the virtual worldenvironment; the data based communication conference call server:receives a first data based communication associated with the hybridconference call from a client computing device; converts the first databased communication to a first telephone protocol communication togenerate a converted telephone protocol communication; and forwards theconverted telephone protocol communication to one or more telephonedevices via the telephone conference call server; and the telephoneconference call server: receives a second telephone protocolcommunication associated with the hybrid conference call from atelephone device; converts the second telephone protocol communicationto a second data based communication to generate a converted data basedcommunication; and forwards the converted data based communication toone or more client computing devices via the data based communicationconference call server, wherein the hybrid conference call isestablished by: associating a virtual meeting place with a locationwithin the virtual world environment, wherein within the virtual meetingplace a first set of users of virtual world environment avatars performvoice communication with each other using the data based communications;and associating a conventional telephone number conference call call-innumber and passcode with the location within the virtual worldenvironment, wherein a second set of users that do not have avatars inthe virtual world environment communicate with the first set of users bydialing into the hybrid conference call using the call-in number andpasscode and performing voice communication using telephone protocolcommunications.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein a user in the firstset of users joins the hybrid conference call in response to the user inthe first set of users moving their virtual world environment avatarsinto the location associated with the virtual meeting place.
 12. Thesystem of claim 10, wherein, in response to a user in the second set ofusers joining the hybrid conference call by dialing the call-in numberand passcode, a notification is provided to other users in the first andsecond set of users.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein thenotification includes a visual notification being presented to the firstset of users via client computing devices being used by the first set ofusers.
 14. The system of claim 12, wherein, in response to the user inthe second set of users joining the hybrid conference call, an avatarfor the user in the second set of users is automatically generated inthe virtual meeting place.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein theavatar for the user in the second set of users is a ghost avatar thatrepresents the user in the virtual world environment but is notcontrollable by the user in the second set of users.
 16. The system ofclaim 10, further comprising: in response to establishing the virtualmeeting place, automatically sending notifications to the first set ofusers and second set of users with information identifying, for thefirst set of users, the location in the virtual world environmentassociated with the virtual meeting place, and identifying, for thesecond set of users, the conference call call-in number and passcodeassociated with the location in the virtual world environment.
 17. Thesystem of claim 10, wherein the data based communication is a voice overinterne protocol (VOIP) communication.
 18. The system of claim 10,wherein the virtual world environment is a massively multiplayer onlinegame virtual world environment.
 19. A computer program productcomprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having acomputer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readableprogram, when executed on a data processing system, cause the dataprocessing system to: establish a hybrid conference call by establishinga hybrid conference call communication connection between a data basedcommunication conference call server, that handles data basedcommunications with client computing devices, and a telephone conferencecall server, that handles telephone protocol communications withtelephone devices external to the virtual world environment; receive, inthe data based communication conference call server, a data basedcommunication associated with the hybrid conference call from a clientcomputing device; convert the data based communication to a telephoneprotocol communication to generate a converted telephone protocolcommunication; forward the converted telephone protocol communication toone or more telephone devices via the telephone conference call server;receive, in the telephone conference call server, a telephone protocolcommunication associated with the hybrid conference call from atelephone device; convert the telephone protocol communication to a databased communication to generate a converted data based communication;and forward the converted data based communication to one or more clientcomputing devices via the data based communication conference callserver, wherein the hybrid conference call is established by:associating a virtual meeting place with a location within the virtualworld environment, wherein within the virtual meeting place a first setof users of virtual world environment avatars perform voicecommunication with each other using the data based communications; andassociating a conventional telephone number conference call call-innumber and passcode with the location within the virtual worldenvironment, wherein a second set of users that do not have avatars inthe virtual world environment communicate with the first set of users bydialing into the hybrid conference call using the call-in number andpasscode and performing voice communication using telephone protocolcommunications.